WADA hosts Kenyan officials at Regional Office meeting in Cape Town

Representatives from WADA, Anti-Doping Norway and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency met with the officials from the Kenyan government in Cape Town, South Africa earlier today to discuss the development of a Kenyan National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO).

The Kenyan delegation, which was led by the Cabinet Secretary of Sport Culture and the Arts, Dr. Hassan Wario Arero, attended the meeting just days after the release of the Anti-Doping Taskforce Report, the findings of which established the need for Kenya to create a robust NADO.

“WADA hosted a constructive meeting today alongside our Norwegian and Chinese colleagues, which resulted in us all agreeing to assist the establishment of a new NADO,” said WADA Director General, David Howman.

“We have now set in motion the process for initiating an organization, which was one of the main issues that emanated from the Task Force Report. With WADA overseeing the process, Kenya can have full confidence that it will have strong support from Norway and China in gaining the expertise it needs to establish an effective NADO,” he added.

“The Kenyan Government is fully committed to working with WADA, Norway and China to develop a fully functional NADO in order to protect clean athletes, and we are fortunate to have such strong partners assisting us” said Dr. Arero.

It was decided that WADA will oversee a comprehensive plan of action for establishing the NADO, while Anti-Doping Norway and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency will provide technical training and guidance throughout the process. The next project team meeting is scheduled for January 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya is the current host of the Africa Zone V Regional Anti-Doping Organization and is coordinating all anti-doping activities in Burundi, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

• This World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) press release was originally published on the WADA website on 22 October. You can access the original by clicking here.